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Net benefit of hosting the Rugby World Cup $280m over 7 weeks ($780m tourist spending minus $500m investment and operating losses). Cost of an 8cm welding crack in the Maui pipeline: $350m after 2 days. Guess it pays to mind the small stuff. Least it…
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Got to hand it to Labour, they have no shortage of guts! The capital gains tax was supposed to be electoral suicide, but in fact Labour's policy was almost universally well received (except by the incoherent Nats). Confronting the huge "untouchable" issue of the approaching superannuation…
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John Key has announced National's employment policy and it's all about making Kiwi workers pay. It includes: A partial return to youth rates. Allow employers to opt out of Multi Employer Collective Agreements - this would mean the end of any industry bargaining and damage…
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The Nats want to extend the new entrants wage from 200hrs/3 months to 6 months. Won't create jobs. Most businesses don't bother with the new entrants wage anyway. word is, though, that the NE wage is a red herring. The guts of the policy will…
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Well, they said they were going to run this campaign on policy and make the bold moves, and Labour proved that with their savings policy. National is been left floundering. Labour has the policy-focused discourse it wanted and Key will look silly parading in front…
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Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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Labour's savings policy is taking care of future generations by making KiwiSaver universal and compulsory for all wage and salary earners, by re-starting contributions to the New Zealand Super Fund, and by gradually increasing the age of eligibility for New Zealand Super from 65 to…
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbhEOwHrFtE
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It's not surprising that National are trying to run a presidential, personality based election campaign - after all, their policies aren't going to win many votes from those middle and lower income kiwis who understand them. And up till now, presidentialism has worked very well…
accountability campaigning election 2011 john key labour leadership national phil goff privatisation
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Does anyone have a copy of National's real TV ad? I hear it's weird and doesn't really say anything, just kind of blandly asserts that the party that has borrowed $38 billion in three years and has achieved zero growth is better than the one…
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John Key's try-hard failed handshake at the RWC has gone viral. What looked like a minor footnote to the affair came out last night, when it was reported that YouTube had taken down the clip at the request of the IRB. Not really worth a…
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Labour's cleverly wrong-footed Brand Key with a policy-based campaign launch. Key will look out of touch playing messiah at his campaign launch while the economy burns. Labour's ads are great. The Tories are in panic mode: they don't feature Goff enough moans Key; they feature…
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Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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Paddy Gower at TV3 reveals Lord Ashcroft, billionaire Tory donor and International Democratic Union treasurer, has come to talk to Key again as he did before the last election. Dave couldn't come so Lord Ashcroft did. Just discussed politics generally, said Key. Politics yes, generally…
crosby textor democracy under attack john key polls same old national uk politics
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Official Launch: Friday 28th October, Auckland The Campaign to Keep MMP will be officially launched at 10.30am on Friday 28 October at Pescado Café and Tapas Bar on Jellicoe Street, North Wharf Wynyard Quarter, Auckland. Keep MMP's spokespeople Sandra Grey, Philip Temple and Lewis Holden…
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The Rena. A Neo-Liberal failure. Nearly three weeks ago now a container vessel grounded on Astrolabe reef near Tauranga, New Zealand. Shipping accidents like the Rena are entirely at the door of Neo-Liberal economics. The foreseeable results of Globalisation, de-regulation, the endless search for…
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- thanks to the reader who sent this in (don't know if you want to be named)
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I/S looks at two dividing lines between left and right that may help your choice in a month's time. The first is Afghanistan. Labour has promised to bring the SAS home within 90 days. National won't commit to withdrawing. The second is water: National wants…
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The meeting of European Finance Ministers set for Wednesday that was supposed to put in place the framework for the Euro support has been cancelled. Certainty appears ever more elusive. According to Wolfgang Muenchau in the Financial Times, in any case the proposed plan depends…
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It was meant to be so easy. With high polling and several possible support partners, National would breeze into a second term thanks to Brand Key. The man himself would carried around the country by crowds of adoring locals. It would be more coronation than…
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The PREFU paints a pretty dismal picture of the economy, as many commentators were quick to point out. Here's Duncan Garner: Pre-election fiscal update paints bleak picture The Government has opened the books today in what's called the pre-election update to give all the parties…
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There's a tired old line trotted about by those who dislike MMP and that whole proportionality thing it guarantees: "it gives minor parties too much power". You usually see it used to disparage law changes like the repeal of section 59 (which only 113 MPs…
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Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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The Pre-Election Fiscal and Economic Update is out. It shows that National has broken its promises on the economy once again. Five months ago, they were promising growth would hit 4% in the year to March 2013, which starts on April 1 next year. Now,…
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Pamphlets are circling highlighting past comments made by Mr Banks, including anti-homosexuality and racist ideas. Right-wing bloggers say it's all part of nasty campaign tactics by Labour. "waa, waa, waa" said Farrar and Slater "it's mean to quote a man's words when he's trying to…
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Thierry Dusautoir thoroughly deserved the player of the year at the IRB awards last night. And how well he took it - with praise for the All Blacks, addressed to Richie McCaw, and with words from the heart spoken to his team. We all saw…
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"If you are under an illusion that class warfare is non-existent in our society, then look no further. Today an incredulous Deborah Hill Cone took aim at the Occupy Movement. She cunningly opens her piece with a suggestion that “I'd have thought Aotea Square was…
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National's new online ad campaign shows a roadworker with a stop sign, supposedly representing Labour (he has a red hat and red swandry so you get the point) and another roadworker with a go sign meant to represent National (although his sign is green ...…
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A while back I wrote a post on the similarities between the austerity measures in Britain and in NZ, and the all too predictable outcome of economic stagnation and increasing hardship in both countries. No surprise of course to find a similar analysis of the…